B1G and SEC are far and away the best conferences. Using an arbitrary top 40, according to KenPom, there 10 B1G teams and 12 SEC teams. More than half the top 40 from just those two conferences.
Looking at Torvik (because the detailed stats are free), among the top 50, which are teams I consider at-large NCAA quality (it's more like 45 if you consider there are probably 22-23 one-bid conferences, but 50 is a nice round number), 43 of them are from just the big 4 conferences, and 4 more are from the Big East (UConn, St. John's, Creighton, Villanova), who should be a major conference. Two from the WCC (Gonzaga, St. Mary's) and one from the MWC, and that's all.
Of those big 4, the ACC has 6 (Duke, Louisville, UNC, Virginia, NC State, Clemson), Big 12 has 10 (Houston, Arizona, Iowa State, BYU, Kansas, Texas Tech, Baylor, Cincinnati, Oklahoma State, West Virginia), SEC has 13 (Florida, Kentucky, Vandy, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Auburn, Missouri, Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Mississippi State), and the B1G has 14 (Illinois, Michigan, Purdue, UCLA, USC, Michigan State, Ohio State, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Oregon, Nebraska, Washington, Maryland).
I feel like the NIL era has levelled the playing field, but ONLY for the major conferences, with mid majors getting almost entirely shut out.
